Plantation Course

Every year, golf fans can get a good look at the Plantation Course's oceanfront holes—and catch glimpses of breaching whales in the distance—during the PGA Tour's season-starting, televised event, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Hawaii's stunning landscape means that there is plenty of mediocre golf to be had on the islands that can boast beautiful scenery, but this course is truly the real deal, designed in a bold fashion by Coore & Crenshaw, who seem never to build anything less than a terrific golf course. The famed tandem routed Plantation Course on Kapalua along breeze-washed terrain that opens up to soul-stirring middle- and long-distance views of the endless Pacific. The challenges of this unusually long course are unrelenting. If you aren't a long hitter, you can't shoot a good score on it unless you opt to play from the upfront tee markers.